Hansen–Vukićević conjecture on Zagreb indices

Let G\mathcal{G} be a simple finite graph with vertex set V(G)V(\mathcal{G}) and edge set e(G)e(\mathcal{G}). Its first and second Zagreb indices are

M1(G)=vV(G)deg(v)2,M2(G)=uve(G)deg(u)deg(v).M_{1}(\mathcal{G})=\sum_{v\in V(\mathcal{G})}\deg(v)^{2},\qquad M_{2}(\mathcal{G})=\sum_{uv\in e(\mathcal{G})}\deg(u)\deg(v).

Hansen–Vukićević conjecture. For any simple finite graph G\mathcal{G},

M2(G)e(G)M1(G)V(G).\dfrac{M_{2}(\mathcal{G})}{\lvert e(\mathcal{G})\rvert}\geq\dfrac{M_{1}(\mathcal{G})}{\lvert V(\mathcal{G})\rvert}.

Hansen and Vukićević posed this inequality as a comparison between the first and second Zagreb indices. It was disproved by the example Γ=K1,5K3\Gamma=K_{1,5}\sqcup K_{3}, so the conjecture is refuted.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Shrabani Das, Ahmad Erfanian and Rajat Kanti Nath, “Certain topological indices and spectral properties of SGB-graphs of finite cyclic groups”, arXiv:2602.07587 (2026).

Additional references

5 papers in this index state this conjecture (2023–2026). The statement above is taken from the most recent of them; the others are arXiv:2411.03170, arXiv:2407.11297, arXiv:2401.02554, arXiv:2304.02230.

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